Recent amendments to Australia’s Privacy Act have imposed new obligations on companies that collect data about us, but will they effectively regulate the offshore data centres that keep our data in “the cloud”?

The Australian government has introduced legislation that would compel internet and telecommunications companies to store “metadata” generated by their customers. Why have they done this, what exactly are they storing, and what effects will this have on our privacy?

If you have sent an e-mail, made a telephone call or looked at a website based abroad in the past few days, chances are that it has been recorded in a database run by the “five eyes” of international intelligence services.

With every purchase we make now trackable, businesses will be able to determine how much each of us is prepared to pay for a particular item. Will this new era of “personalised pricing” make the concept of a bargain a historical curiosity?

As more of our lives move online, our every click and “like” builds a data profile about us. This requires vigilance to ensure that laws adequately ensure that businesses and law enforcement agencies use and protect information about us.

The explosion of sensors in smartphones and wearable devices and the growing embrace of “big data” are creating a “sensor society”, raising issues not only about surveillance but also power and control in a world of ever-watching, ever-sensing, always-on interactive devices.

Remotely piloted aircraft are becoming more common in our skies as decreasing costs put them in the hands of ordinary citizens, yet legal protection against privacy invasions by airborne cameras is inconsistent between the states.